


Ending Theme

by Reis_Asher



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Scene, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Inspired by Final Fantasy X, Love Confessions, M/M, Sacrifice, Sad Ending, Spoilers, The Star Ending (Cyberpunk 2077), cyberspace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:00:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28751811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reis_Asher/pseuds/Reis_Asher
Summary: You remember that scene from the end of Final Fantasy X? Now imagine if the end of Cyberpunk 2077 was a little bit like that, only it's male V and Johnny Silverhand.
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand/Male V
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Ending Theme

**Author's Note:**

> Major ending spoilers, a bunch of the ending is in this word-for-word, so don't read this if you haven't beaten the game. Go beat it for yourself, it's much better than this stupid fanfic.
> 
> This is dumb, unoriginal, and like, way too sappy for these characters but whatever, I'm just having fun, don't @ me.

As the souls from Mikoshi flooded out into cyberspace like fireflies released on a warm summer night, V glanced down at his arms. Johnny sat with his feet up on a table, cool as ever as Alt hovered above them, a goddess of red light and beauty composed of raw data.

As if she hadn’t just told V he was going to die in six months, tops. That he was an engram, now, ripped from his body so he could be separated and disentangled from Johnny’s consciousness.

It was only now they were apart that he felt like he’d been torn in half. He felt incomplete, like a vital part of himself was gone. Johnny. Johnny was that part. Who had he been before Johnny? Just some merc who wanted to be a big shot, like any number of nameless faces in Night City. Johnny had given him a reason to take gigs, a purpose beyond fame and fortune. He’d thought that purpose was to save his own life, but that seemed irrelevant, now. He couldn’t save it, not when Johnny was an inexorable part of it and only one half of the whole could be preserved.

“Alt, question. Will the body reject Johnny’s construct?” V didn’t want to die, but the thought of Johnny no longer existing was incomprehensible as well. It wasn’t logical to steal Johnny’s life when he could live a full one in his body. Maybe Johnny would think differently about their relationship. He might not be as alone without V as V was without Johnny.

“No. They are compatible. The body is his,” Alt explained.

Johnny stared at Alt like he was seeing her for the first time, his shades left on the table. “That’s enough, Alt. V and I need a minute.”

V shook his head. “I can’t believe it. Everything. All we did--it was pointless. I’ve had enough of this. Of everything.” He’d hoped for some miracle at the end. Some way to merge them both into one form, or simply to preserve the status quo. He couldn’t envision living without Johnny commenting on the world around them. Being in his cone of vision when he least expected it. Johnny’s feelings interlacing with his own until he didn’t know where he ended and Johnny began.

Johnny nodded. “Perfect, ‘cause we’re stickin’ to the plan. I’m goin’ with Alt, fuck knows where, you’re keepin’ your body.” Johnny’s sentences were short, terse, cutting off words like he did when he was stressed. V knew him like he knew himself, because Johnny was him. At some point they’d become one, lovers who finished each other’s sentences out of intimate knowledge.

“Is there really no other way?” V asked.

Alt reappeared. “As I said, Johnny can retain the body, remain there, while you come with me.”

V had been empty before Johnny, and going back to a life alone meant he’d be empty again. But disappearing into the ‘Net would mean… dying. Alt wasn’t human. There were traces of her in there, somewhere, but she didn’t seem to convey emotion.

He’d lose that spark Johnny had ignited in him which had grown into a roaring flame of rebellion and passion. To become nothing more than a datastream comprised of ones and zeroes. Cold. Detached. He couldn’t imagine anything worse, and yet one of them had to accept it as their fate.

“Guess I meant… I dunno... a happier ending… for everyone involved.” V could barely force the words out. This was no choice at all. Kill Johnny, or sacrifice himself. Someone had to lose.

“This bridge leads to cyberspace. Cross it and permanently sever the connection with your body,” Alt explained, as if she could read the thoughts right out of V’s head. Maybe she could. Maybe she knew it was the right thing to do, that some small part of her wanted him to let Johnny live.

Maybe there would be something of his heart left inside the ‘Net after all. Something like the tattoo on his arm that said “Johnny + V”, as if Johnny had carved their initials into a tree like young lovers. A joke that cut too close to the bone, because they both had to know it was true. They were inseparable, cleaved together against their will and yet better together.

V kicked the nonexistent chair away from underneath him and stood up, his decision made. He walked towards the stream of souls that seemed to ascend upwards and downwards into infinity. The bridge was long, but he could cross it. It was the right thing to do. If he loved Johnny, he could do this, and if not… then he could let him go.

Johnny blinked into view before him as he took his first step onto the bridge, like he was about to drop a dark quip about a cyberpsycho in the middle of a gig. “What, a little guilt creeps in and that’s that? You give up?”

“Stop, just stop,” V gasped. Tears stung at his eyes. So much for NC’s baddest merc, getting a little dewy-eyed about a dead rockerboy.

That felt more like Johnny’s thought than his own, and he smiled despite himself.

Johnny continued. “Instead of fightin’ for what’s yours, just gonna roll over and decommish yourself because you’re too fuckin’ scared to say goodbye?” His words cut deep. Did Johnny want to die? Was this his way of saying he was done, that he wished to go with Alt?

The flicker of doubt in Johnny’s eyes told V that he was lying. For his sake. No, too many had sacrificed their lives for him already. He’d killed dozens of people for no reason at all other than the fact they got in his way. Jackie had died because of him. Evelyn, too... This was the only way he could atone.

V started running now. The stream of souls was so close. He couldn’t let Johnny die, couldn’t--

Johnny appeared again. “You’re loyal, grant you that. But dammit are you dense. Haven’t changed a bit since we met.”

V turned away and kept jogging--slower now--until he stood almost at the precipice. All he had to do was take a running jump and the choice would be made. His life for Johnny’s. Johnny could go back to the world, finish what he’d started now V had put a bullet through Adam Smasher’s brain with Johnny’s own gun. Maybe he’d choose to go out in a blaze of glory against the corpos, or he might choose to settle down with Rogue and take things quiet. He deserved the choices he’d been denied by Arasaka.

“V I’m just… I’m just scared for ya.” Those last words broke something inside V. Johnny’s concern was undoing him, making him come apart at the seams. He couldn’t believe he’d once seen Johnny as a cold, selfish, ruthless terrorist. No, Johnny had bombed Arasaka Tower because he cared too much, about everyone and everything. It wasn’t just an act of rebellion for rebellion’s sake, the act of a hot-blooded musician high on sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Johnny had seen the horrors the corpos had wreaked upon the world and couldn’t let it lie.

V balled his hands into fists. There was so much to say, and yet no time in which to express it. His last words had to be ones for the ages. True and from the heart. A song to end all songs. Something to let Johnny know he’d become a vital part of him he didn’t want to live without. Without turning back to face Johnny, V blurted out the simplest words he knew, ones he’d never spoken to anyone else: “I love you.”

Johnny crept up behind him, wrapping his arms around V’s shoulders. They couldn’t really touch--they were only constructs, after all--and yet V could have sworn he felt Johnny’s caress, his presence, as they meshed, clipping through each other. They held that pose for a long moment. V never wanted it to end, but they couldn’t remain here. Mikoshi was shutting down.

V opened his eyes just in time to witness Johnny pass right through him. The last thing V caught was the smirk on his face. With a one, two running step Johnny jumped into the well of souls. V reached out his hand, but it was too late. Johnny was gone without so much as a final comment. Not that V needed it. Johnny had done more than spout saccharine clichés that would have sounded foreign on his tongue. He’d put his money where his mouth was, showing his heart with action. Gifting V his life back.

The well back to his body was the only path now. Johnny had made the impossible choice for him, the bastard. Putting himself in a place where V could never reach, no matter how hard he tried.

He returned to awareness, whistling a few bars from “Never Fade Away” as he contemplated the empty space on the wall where Johnny might have sat, legs dangling as he made a disparaging comment. No, he couldn’t waste his time looking back. He owed it to Johnny to find a cure for his condition and live life to the fullest, blazing the rebel path and following his own code of honor until the end.


End file.
